News

Apple releases details on Government Information Requests

Apple has published a report providing details on its customer privacy policies in light of information requests that it receives from government agencies. In the document, titled Report on Government Information Requests, Apple emphasizes that its priority is on ensuring that its customers “have a right to understand how their personal information is handled” and that it has released the report in the interests of transparency and included “all of the information [the company] is legally allowed to share.” Apple notes in the report that “the most common account requests involve robberies and other crimes or requests from law enforcement officers searching for missing persons or children, finding a kidnapping victim, or hoping to prevent a suicide” and that most requests usually involve providing only information such as a name or address, and only “in very rare cases” is the company asked to disclose content such as “stored photos or email.”

The document also includes charts that disclose how many requests the company has received from various governments throughout the first half of 2013 for both account information and devices. Account information is broken down for each country by total number of requests, accounts specified in the requests, and the number of requests for which data was disclosed or where Apple objected, and which type of content was disclosed. The second table provides details on the total number of device requests received by Apple, usually related to lost or stolen devices, and how many of these requests resulted in some data being provided. [via 9to5Mac]